Awakening to See
by Trixi Summers
Summary: After Ginny finally gets a vacation, she hits her worst enemy with her car. But once she gets a premonition, she has to do whatever she can to stop him from leaving.*WIP*
1. Awakening to See

**Awakening to See...**

RATING: PG-13

SPOILERS: CoS

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

A/N: Okay, so far it's not very romantic, but it will be Draco/Ginny soon. And this is rated PG-13 for mature subject matter.

*

Separated from the ones we love, sent together to heaven above, 

Not to stay, not to be, here, yet, for eternity. 

Mix of blood, heart to heart, we will never be apart.

*

Ginny Weasley pressed the elevator button once and then stood, tapping her foot, while she waited for the elevator to come. She had been stuck in Britain's government offices for nearly forty hours and was dying to get out of London. When she had graduated from Hogwarts, she had decided to work as a correspondent between the Muggle government and the Ministry of Magic. Now, she desperately wanted to get home.

The elevator door finally opened, and as she was about to step in, someone called out her name. "Miss Weasley!" Andrew Morton called from an office by the elevator. He was standing in the doorway wearing a black suit. Ginny sighed and walked back off the elevator. 

"What now?!" Ginny asked, wringing her hands. "I could honestly wring your neck for all of the work you've given me and now you're about to give me more?" 

Good thing her boss was a good sport or else she would be in a lot of trouble for saying that. Andrew laughed and walked back into his office. Ginny followed a bit reluctantly. "I'm sorry, Virginia," Andrew said. "I know how busy you have been over the past few months and how much you really need a vacation." 

"Well, I'll think about the vacation later," Ginny told him impatiently. "All I really want to do right now is go home and have a cup of coffee and read a good book." 

"What if I told you that the Ministry wants you to take some time off?" Andrew asked, sitting on the edge of his desk. "You have done more than your fair share of corresponding, and done an excellent job at it too, I might add. The Ministry and the British government would like to repay you for all your work with a week off. Well, what do you say?" 

"What do I say?" Ginny asked, exasperatedly. "You can just catch me from going home and drop a bombshell like that and expect a quick answer." 

"But I am, and that's what is important," Andrew said, getting up and sitting in his chair at the desk. "I don't want you coming in tomorrow or for the rest of the week until next Sunday. Like I've said before, you've earned it. You can leave now." 

Surprised, Ginny dashed out of the office just as the elevator door was about to close. She pressed the button and the door opened again, revealing a large crowd inside. Hell, I'll take the stairs, she thought and ran to the stairway. She quickly ran down each step until she came to the ground floor which was six floors down from where she had been. She pushed open the door to the lobby and ran through it to the double glass doors that slid open for her as she approached them. It had started to rain and Ginny groaned as she ran to the parking lot where her car was parked. The Ministry had paid her enough on her first year as correspondent and as a reward, Ginny had bought a silver BMW so that she could drive to work instead of flying a broomstick. 

As she approached her car, the lights flashed twice. She had programmed her car (magically, of course) to unlock the doors whenever she came near. She got into her car and started the engine. As soon as she buckled in her seat belt, she drove the car out of the parking lot and guided it to a main highway. She soon got off the highway and navigated her car onto a small forest lane that led to her house in the woods. 

The trees in the forest were thickly gathered and their leaves were quickly turning yellow. They fell on the ground, getting crushed underneath the BMW's tires. Ginny looked around at all the beautiful trees. Fall was such a beautiful season, especially in the woods. 

Suddenly, a figure robed in black darted out of the bushes and onto the lane in front of the BMW. The car hit the figure with a sickening crunch. Ginny immediately stopped the car and worked furiously at the buckle to get out of her seat belt. She opened the car door when she couldn't undo the buckle and stuck her foot out. The door slowly began to close again and Ginny finally undid the belt buckle. Then, she opened the door wider and it came in contact with something. Her heart beat even faster as she heard a low moan coming from the figure. 

She let go of the door and rushed down to her knees beside the figure. Cradling the person's head on her lap, she drew back the hood and gasped. A blonde-haired, pale-faced man looked back at her with grey eyes and she immediately recognized who it was at once. 

"Draco Malfoy," she said bitterly. 

Draco smirked and started to get up. His head and his arm had started to bleed where he had been hit. "'Lo, Weasley," he said. He failed in sitting up and lay back down. 

"You know what, Malfoy?" Ginny said, starting to get up. "I think I'll leave you here-" She broke off when she saw that his eyes were closed and he was not responding. Her conscience broke through her hatred for him and she bent down. "Grumble, grumble. Just when I get a vacation, I'm the one who has to hit Draco Malfoy and deal with the consequences." She picked up his limp body, which she found surprisingly light, and put him in the backseat of her car. Then, she drove the rest of the way home. 

The house she had bought was a very small house. The outside was a reddish-brown colour and vines of every kind grew all over it. The inside had two rooms, which didn't include the bathroom. The walls were painted with a soft creamy colour all the way through and different rugs lay on the floor. Ginny dragged the still unconscious Draco in and lay him on the sofa. Then, she made coffee for herself and went out onto the patio. It was still gently raining so Ginny went underneath a trellis overgrown with honeysuckle vines. The world around her seemed peaceful to her. Small birds chirped from underneath leaves in the trees, waiting for the rain to stop. Rabbits hopped around in the rain, eating grass. Now, she felt guilty for not paying attention to the road. She wouldn't of hit Draco if she had been looking at the road.

* 

The first thing Draco saw was the ceiling when he opened his eyes. It was a creamy brown colour and completely unrecognizable to him. He sat up instantly and regretted moving so fast. Pain seared through his head and he put his hand to where his head had been hit. The memories came back to him. 

"Oh, right," Draco mumbled sarcastically. "I was hit by a car." 

He slowly got up and looked around. There was nobody in the room. It was awfully small and certainly not what he was used to. There was a door by the dining room table that was partially open. Draco crept over to it and soundlessly opened it further. Beyond was a small bedroom with a large four-poster bed in the center of the room. What was more surprising was that the curtains were pink. 

"Pink?" Draco whispered. "Who would want pink in their bedroom? Someone who obviously has bad taste." 

He pulled the door closed and looked around once more. There was another door in the far corner of the room. Draco crept over to that and opened it. Bathroom. He looked back at the living room, then went in and closed the door. Looking in the mirror, Draco examined his cut. It had stopped bleeding but dry blood stuck on his skin and hair. He decided to have a shower, thinking that whoever owned this place wouldn't mind. He looked back outside to see if the owner hadn't come back yet. The living room was still empty. Draco grabbed some towels and banged the door closed. He didn't notice the door bounce open partially.

* 

Once Ginny heard a door slam, she turned on her heel and walked back inside the cottage. She looked at the couch and found it deserted. 

"Malfoy?" Ginny called. No answer. She looked inside her bedroom and found that to be empty too. She went outside and couldn't see any footprints leading away from the house except hers. 

"Unless he used a Footprint Covering charm," she whispered, "I doubt that he left the house." Then she remembered the bathroom and, thinking that he must be looking at himself in the mirror, she crept over to the bathroom window and peered in. She frowned as she realized no one was there. There was a piece of cloth sitting on the floor, though. She squinted to see what it was. By now, the steam from the shower (which she still didn't know about since she always kept the shower door shut, and whenever the shower was used, a silencing charm was put on it, for safety reasons) was starting to stick to the window, making it hard for Ginny to see in. 

Her mouth set in a straight line, Ginny went into the house to see what was making the steam in the bathroom. As she pulled the door open, the shower door suddenly opened as well and let out a tall, blonde-haired person. Naked. And wet. She stood, frozen in horror, as the man, who didn't notice her, picked up one of the towels and started to dry himself off. He tensed suddenly and turned around in one movement. 

"Ack!" Ginny exclaimed, shading her eyes. "Malfoy!" 

"What the-" Draco exclaimed at the same time, trying to put on a towel and almost failing. "What the hell are you doing here?" 

"I live here!" Ginny answered, turning around so that Draco could change. "And, by the way Malfoy, it is a custom to lock the door to the bathroom when you are going to take a shower!" 

"Well, I'm sorry," Draco retorted. "But I would have locked the door had I known that someone was home." 

"You can tell by the car in the driveway!" Ginny exclaimed, incredulously. 

"What car?" Draco shouted. 

"The one that I hit you with!" Ginny answered. There was a pause as she realized what she had just said. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive." 

"Tell me about it," Draco muttered. Ginny whipped around, even though Draco only had a pair of jeans on at the moment. 

"You know what, Malfoy? I'm not sorry anymore. I take it back." 

"Fine," Draco said, slipping on his sweater, robes and cloak. "I won't trouble you any more and leave you. It seems that I'm just a bother, so I'll go." 

He stalked past Ginny into the living room and headed for the door. Ginny's mind suddenly filled with thoughts and an ominent foreboding struck her. Her intuition was telling her that he should stay. 

"Malfoy, wait...a minute," she said as he opened the door. "You don't have to leave." 

"Well, recent events have proven that I should," Draco said. "Besides, I don't want to embarrass myself more than I already have." 

"But, you're injured," Ginny protested. 

"No," Draco said firmly, one foot out the door. 

Ginny looked down and shifted from one foot to another. "I am on holiday, so you would not be a bother if I have the...pleasure of your company. Besides, I doubt that you would know the way back to your home, other than the lane, and you weren't using the lane." She looked up then. Draco was looking out the door. Rain was dripping down from the roof and all was silent except for birds chirping. Then, he shut the door and came back inside. 

"Fine then," he said and sat down on the couch. Ginny sighed and went into the kitchen to get some herbs for the injury on Draco's head and the one on his arm. 

"Now, I'm gonna wash the cut out," Ginny told him. "It might sting a little, but don't blame me." She took a basin and filled it with hot water. Then, she crushed the herbs and sprinkled them into the basin. The pieces slowly disintegrated into the water, turning it a light pruple and releasing herbal fumes into the air. Then, she brought the basin and a wash cloth to where Draco was sitting and set it on the coffee table in front of him. She sat on the table and dipped the cloth into the basin, brought it out, squeezed it, and brought it to Draco's forehead, saying, "Hold still." When the cloth touched the cut, Draco jerked away but Ginny grabbed his chin and held his head steady. He hissed and cursed under his breath several times before Ginny finally took the cloth away. The cut had lessened in size. 

"Don't you have training as a MediWizard?" Draco asked, rubbing his head around the cut. She grabbed his arm and dipped the cloth onto the cut on his arm. He hissed again. 

"Yes, but Medispells used outside the hospital can only heal small and less deep wounds. Yours is a bit too large for that stuff, so I need an ancient remedy that was used before Medispells were created. It heals faster." 

"Ah," Draco breathed, wincing again. "Do you have anything that doesn't sting so much?" 

"Oh, well, I thought Malfoys were supposed to be immune to pain," Ginny said quietly. She put the cloth back into the basin and brought the basin into the kitchen. 

"Not all Malfoys are immune to pain," Draco muttered under his breath. Ginny heard this though and looked at him curiously. His face had clouded over. In a louder voice, he said, "Well, you hit me with a car and wash cuts that's right on top of my head. What other emotions am I supposed to feel?" 

Ginny sighed. This was going to be one vacation she'l never forget. Then suddenly- 

\\_"When will we pull the 'head'?" someone said. Ginny couldn't see who was talking. The vision hit her like a heavy stone and she fell to the floor. She had begun to be used to this sort of thing, but it still shocked her when she got a vision. _

_"When your son comes back with the potion," said a shadow by a large window. The shadow turned around to face the person who spoke before him. He was very tall with a smooth, pale face and a flat nose that resembled the slits snakes' had for noses. "Then, we can start. But only then." _

_The vision fogged and swirled in front of Ginny's eyes. Her head was pounding and she was partially blind to her surroundings. Then, the vision unfogged and Ginny realized that she was in a different room. _

_A boy lay against the wall, not much older than twelve. He had the most familiar untidy black hair, green eyes, and glasses. His arm was bleeding profusely above his elbow and a poisonous fang lay nearby. Ginny immediately knew who he was. He was Harry Potter at the age of twelve, in the Chamber of Secrets, dying. The vision widened and she could see Tom Riddle standing above him, watching the boy die. The dead basilisk was somewhere off to the side. _

_Suddenly, a hole opened up behind Tom. The man who had been by the window stepped through the hole and took the form of Tom. The two Toms meshed together and a voice came over the scene, whispering, "To destroy the future, use the past."_// 

Ginny gasped for air as the vision left her. Her breathing had stopped within the last few seconds of the vision and she felt like she was choking. Suddenly, Draco was beside her, holding a glass to her mouth. She shakily held onto the glass with Draco and drank some water. She titled her head to slow her breathing. She could see Draco slipping away and her surroundings began to come back to her. She was sitting on the floor of the kitchen against a cabinent. Draco was standing by the counter, nervous. 

"You're a Seer," Draco stated. At that point, Ginny knew he was going to make a break for it. Using the counter as support, she got up. Her breathing was returning back to normal. 

"Don't go," Ginny said. 

For a moment, Draco was motionless. Ginny's adrenaline pounded as she waited for Draco to move. Seconds passed as the pair stared at each other, then- 

Draco made a mad dash for the door. Ginny grabbed her wand, which was on the counter, and ran after him. They ran out the door and down the lane. Draco was fast, but Ginny could be faster. She put on a burst of speed which carried her closer to him. Now, she was within arm's reach. She grabbed his hood and held on, even as he himself put on a burst of speed. She pulled his hood and he abruptly stopped. She smashed into him and they both fell over. 

"Get off!" Draco said, his yell muffled since his head was buried in the grass. 

"Not before you promise me you won't go to your father," Ginny told him. She was sprawled on top of him and her leg seemed to be stuck somewhere. Well, at least she could use this to her advantage, not in that way though. 

"What are you going to do?" Draco asked, trying to move his head so that his face wasn't buried in the ground. "Hit me with your car again?" 

"Maybe I will," Ginny said, stubbornly. She was beginning to lose her patience. "And this time, I'll make those injuries stick." 

Draco cursed and then muttered, "Is that your leg that is underneath mine?" 

Ginny leaned on her elbows and looked down. So, that's where her leg went. "I guess so. What are you going to do about it?" 

"Move, of course," Draco answered. Then, he pushed up off the ground with all the strength he could muster. Ginny had the odd sensation of flying, for some reason. "Now, move your leg-" Ginny did as she was told. As soon as she had moved her leg, he fell to the ground, "-and get off me." 

"Not until-" Ginny began. 

"-I promise," Draco interrupted, crossly. "Now, get off me!" 

Ginny sighed and got off of Draco. Her leg, that was underneath Draco's, had fallen asleep and her other leg was aching from the new use of its muscles. She staggered backwards and fell down on the ground. Her wand tumbled out of her hand and out of reach. Draco saw this and drew out his own wand, pointing it at her. 

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked, suspiciously. 

A malicious gleam entered Draco's eyes before it was replaced by something Ginny couldn't recognize in his eyes: it was almost kindness with tiredness on the edge. He muttered something under his breath and a jet of yellowish light escaped from his wand and hit Ginny's sleeping leg. Instantly, Ginny felt as if strings were being pulled inside her body and she felt her leg awaken. He stretched a hand to her and she took it. He pulled her up and they walked back to the cottage in silence. 

To Be Continued... 


	2. A Memory of What Has Passed

**...A Memory of What Has Passed**

RATING: PG

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The format of the memory is like in Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice where Ginny describes what is happening in dialogue. 

*

'When one door closes another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.' -Alexander Graham Bell

***

Instruction: For rememberance from Virginia Weasley in the future, take out Tape 2 and insert Tape 1 on Side A. Rewind until sixth year, December 31st at 11pm. Then press play.

*

An older and more mature voice of Ginny Weasley began to speak on the tape recorder. There was no one in the room though, but there was that tape recorder sitting on the table in the middle of the room. The voice began recounting to the silence what had happened on New Year's Eve back in her sixth year.

"The Great Hall was decked out with streamers falling from the ceiling to the floor in an endless stream and the tables had disappeared, allowing for small, round tables to be spread about the room. Wizarding music was playing, magically amplified so that everyone could hear it from here to the Tranfiguration office. Students filled every corner of the room, talking to their friends in huddled groups, some eating from the candy set out on the long-table at the front of the room, some dancing to the music, some wandering aimlessly around, yawning.

"My friend, Christine, and I were dancing to Celestine Warbeck's song 'Night of Nights'. I hadn't seen Ron or Hermione all night, and Harry was sitting at a table talking to Seamus and Dean, most likely about Quidditch. New Year's Eve parties were only for the fifth, sixth, and seventh years, so there weren't any younger kids in sight except for those select few who had snuck in. Many students were on the dancefloor, dancing to this song. Christine and I danced for a couple more songs after that until I broke away to head for the food. They had a couple of cases of Butterbeers from the Three Broomsticks and I was anxious to have one before they ran out.

"When I got to the table, Draco Malfoy was already there, filling a plate with Exploding Potato Chips in barbecue flavour. He took no notice of me, but I could swear that I saw him look at me for a second before going back to filling his plate. I looked around the table for a Butterbeer but they were nowhere in sight. I grumbled and began to walk up and down the long-table looking for another case of Butterbeer. When I had gotten back to my original spot, I noticed Draco was looking at me finally, and he looked as if I had lost my mind.

"'What are you looking at?' I asked, more irritably than I would have liked.

"'Oh, nothing at all,' he said, looking back towards his plate. 'Just wondering what Potter's little follower is doing here when he's over...somewhere.'

"Not satisfied with that answer, I pressed on, walking over to him. 'No, tell me. What is it that you find so fascinating about me?' My voice had taken a hard edge for I could not stand Draco ever since I started school.

"Now, he answered. 'I was just wondering what has gotten you off your bat, Weasel,' he said with a sneer. 'You looked like a mindless corpse wondering where your mummy was.'

"'Oh, is that true?' I asked, my temper rising within me. It was an awful thing, that temper. When provoked, my temper had the knack to turn everyone away from me, but since this was Draco Malfoy, I frankly didn't care. 'I heard that in the last vampire attack when the lights had shut off, you had run around the school, screaming like a baby.'

"For some reason, he snorted. 'You know, you are really petty to be listening to rumors. Even a dog wouldn't listen to those kinds of things. But I suppose you would find a liking for them, as they are your only friends.'

"'How dare you!' I hissed. In the meantime, my mind kept saying 'Get OUT of here!' while my temper kept rising. I ignored both warning signals and went on. 'I do so have friends, but at least they have more of a mind than those two lackeys of yours. Crabbe and Goyle couldn't add two and two together even if it counted on their lives.'

"'Don't insult those two. That's my job.' He looked away to where the tables were and then back again so quickly that I didn't know where he looked. He snorted when he returned his gaze to me and said, 'In the meantime, that girl over there is what you call a friend?' He pointed to where Christine was sitting, chatting easily with Harry as if they had been best friends for years. I do have to admit, I still had a crush on Harry, even at that time, and it irked me to see my best friend over there, chatting more easily than I ever could. I kept my eyes on that table and could feel Draco watching me, his eyes taking in the pain he had just caused.

"'See that, little Weasley? He doesn't like you. He only thinks of you as Weasel's little sister, nothing more.' He gave a short laugh. 'I wonder if he even notices you at all.'

"At that point, my temper took control of me. 'That is it,' I said, annoyed, and whirled around to smack Draco before I could stop myself. My mouth dropped open in shock and I looked down at my reddening hand. Then, I looked at Draco's reddening cheek. He was looking at me in a mixture of anger, amusement, and shock.

"I was only dimly aware that the lights were dimming, throwing us into complete shadow along with the rest of the room, and that mistletoe popped into the air above us. The tradition at these parties was when the clock struck midnight, pairs underneath mistletoe had to kiss. What was even more ironic was that somehow a branch of mistletoe had found itself hanging over Draco and I.

"When I finally did notice it hanging there, the countdown from ten had already begun. I realised in shock that I was supposed to kiss this worm, so I started to back away. But Draco noticed and smirked, saying 'You're not going anywhere.' He grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to stand right in front of him, our bodies mere centimetres apart. _Three...two...one..._

"'Happy New Year!' The cheer came up fast and loud before every pair in the room began to kiss. I found myself tilting my head up to meet Draco's lips and him bending down to meet mine. The kiss was heated, as if we were both venting our troubles in it. I had kissed boys before, but never like this. It became rough a little, and he pulled me closer to him and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Then, it became slow, methodic. My fingers were in his hair and his were massaging my back down to my bottom. We kept kissing until the music suddenly blasted through the silent air around us. Draco sucked on my bottom lip one last time before we broke apart and I found that the lights that had been dimmed were growing brighter. I felt my face blush as if people had been watching, but I was relieved to find that most pairs were still caught up in kissing.

"But us I looked around, Draco slipped away silently. Everytime I passed him in the hallways after that, I had to blush and put my head down, hoping that he wouldn't see it. Afterall, I had snogged one of the hottest boys in Hogwarts on New Year's Eve and I'm sure that not many girls in Gryffindor get that privilege with Draco...or any at all. Then, he graduated and I forgot about it. Heavens, I don't even know why I still remember it so clearly after all these years..."

*

Instruction: Replace Tape 1 with Tape 2 and fast forward to continue with the main story.

**

Ginny bolted upright in her bed, breathing heavily. It had been so long since she had thought about that New Year's Eve, let alone the kiss between her and Draco. Why was his sudden appearance back into her life making her dream about it again when she was well over it? Or was she?

She didn't have any more time to think when she realised that a group of people were tramping through the forest towards the cottage. And then, glass shattered in the window in the living room and her window was set on fire.


	3. The Trials and Tribulations of Draco and...

**...The Trials and Tribulations of Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley **

RATING: PG-13

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling related, nor am I affiliated with anybody Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling related.

A/N: Okay, I'm not sure if this chp will come up to be as great as the ones before. I couldn't think of a plot within a plot that would be good enough so I chose the disease cliche.

*

The noise of breaking windows woke Draco up immediately, but he kept his eyes closed as the intruders jumped through the windows. The sound of intruders rifling through the valuables echoed through the small room and Draco suddenly realized that there was someone standing above him about to bring something down to his head.

His eyes snapped open and he grabbed the frying pan, causing the man to jump back in fright. Draco knocked him out with the pan and then threw the pan towards a small group of thieves in the kitchen, but not before seeing a flash of white from out of the corner of his eye. The pan hit one man in the back, who gave a shout and toppled forwards into the sink.

"_Stupefy_," Draco heard Ginny cast from the other side of the room where her bedroom door was. One man fell down, stunned, but as Draco turned his head to look at Ginny, she was attacked from behind and Draco received a sharp blow to the head which knocked him off the couch and his head nearly hit the coffee table.

His attacker jumped over the side of the couch and was about to deal Draco many blows with the frying pan Draco had thrown at him, but Draco realized quickly that his wand was on the floor beside him. He grabbed it and stunned the man, who crumpled to the ground.

"Sorry, mate, but you had it coming," Draco muttered and took the frying pan. He saw that Ginny was being lifted up by her neck and threw the frying pan at her attacker. It knocked him in the head and he let go of her before falling to the ground. Once down, she grabbed the frying pan and started to attack her attackers with it.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this," Ginny said triumphantly and Draco laughed before stunning a man who was trying to sneak up behind him. Soon, all of the intruders were stunned and Draco plopped down on the couch. Ginny joined him, still carrying the frying pan. She dropped it on the table suddenly and ran back into the kitchen.

"What are the chances that one day you hit me with your car, and then the next morning we are attacked by a bunch of filthy _Muggles_?" Draco asked, turning to see her gather up the basin and washcloth again. She brought them over to the coffee table and Draco noticed that she had refilled the basin with hot water which was steaming with aromas.

"Don't look at me," Ginny said defensively, sitting down beside him and dipping the washcloth into the basin. "It's not like I asked a bunch of Muggles to come and ransack my home." She paused as she applied the cloth to the wound on his head and he winced. "I mean, we're living in the middle of a forest where virtually anything can happen." He nodded as she redipped the cloth into the basin and brought it back up to his head. "Nothing as big as this has ever happened before, but weirder things have happened. I remember I woke up one morning and my bed was filled with frogs and toads. At first, I thought I was back home with my parents and the twins had been playing tricks on me again, but I realized I was in the bedroom of my cottage."

He nodded silently, wondering whether he should tell her he'd never been to her house before. Come to think of it, he didn't remember what the twins looked like or what the rest of her family looked like now. He had never had to meet up with them again so he simply forgot them or what he said or did to them when he was young.

Ginny suddely winced and let out a hiss of breath, drawing Draco to notice that her pajama top's sleeve was covered in blood. She put the cloth into the basin before peeling back the sleeves on her top. Her revealed skin was matted in dried blood and what looked like burns. She made to grab the cloth, but he beat her to it.

"Here, let me do it," he said and she nodded slowly with apprehension, holding her arm out to him. He dipped the cloth in the basin to rid it of his blood and began to pat it on Ginny's arm. She winced and pulled her arm back a little as the hot water seeped into the cut. "Easy, hold still now," he whispered. The blood began to disappear until he could see the cut on her arm clearly. It was long and deep and the skin was reddened around it. He patted the cut until it too began to shrink, along with the burns.

"Draco..." Ginny suddenly whispered, trying to point to something behind him.

"Hold still, I'm almost finished," Draco said in response.

"Draco..." Ginny breathed again and he was startled to realize that she was using his first name instead of his last name. He looked up to see her eyes wide with fear and turned to see what she was looking at.

A pearly mist like a cloud with a head and two hands was slowly coming towards them, a vicious grin on its face. Draco swore and grabbed the wands that were on the coffee table before half-pulling Ginny into her bedroom and closing the door, locking it tight.

"What was that thing?" Ginny asked, frightened.

"An evil spirit called dreshnok," he told her. "They go after weakened or bleeding people with diseases and feed on their pain and fear. Looks like our morning is about to get better."

"This is just great," Ginny sighed and leaned against a bed post, but not before looking at her arm in pain. Draco mentally congratulated himself for not leaving the cloth in the living room with the basin and sat down on the bed beside her. He used the rest of the potion in the cloth to fully seal up the cut.

Ginny had slid onto the bed beside him and was now looking from him to the cut to the door worriedly. The spirit had taken to banging on the door.

"Shouldn't it be able to get in by now?" Ginny asked, bringing her eyes to Draco's for only a second before going back to staring at the door. "I mean, it _is_ a spirit."

"Yeah, but it probably just wants to frighten us, or more precisely you," Draco said, taking some amusement to her fright. At that moment, the banging stopped and he looked at the door with raised eyebrows. "Dreshnoks live off of pain and fear and right now you're feeding it a whole meal for two."

Ginny huffed and tilted her chin up away from him in defiance. He could tell he was still pretty frightened and chuckled.

"This is _not_ a laughing matter, Draco!" she whispered, turning back to him. He grinned mischievously and she rolled her eyes at him. The banging on the door started again and she sighed in relief. "I thought he was going to do something."

"You're losing some of your fear, aren't you?" he asked.

"Why? Is that a bad thing?" she asked back.

He shook his head at her as if she had done the most stupidest thing in the world and pulled her over to the other side of the bed. He slipped underneath it and pulled her under so she was on top of him. Her body pressed down hard on him, giving him odd pleasures, but he focused on the spirit.

The door suddenly burst off its hinges and flew across the room where it landed with a thud by the burnt windows, causing Ginny to jump. Her leg fell between Draco's legs and he pretended not to notice, although this time it was even harder as he had started to sweat. But he didn't have to worry any longer as the bed was turned over and he was staring up at the evil spirit.

"_Stupefy_," Draco casted, using his wand. He shrugged nonchalantly when nothing happened. "Well, it was worth a try."

Ginny moved so she was lying half on Draco and half on the floor to see the spirit. Her eyes widened in fear and the spirit turned to her, laughing. "What's it going to do?" she asked Draco nervously.

He shrugged again. "Anything it likes."

Ginny whimpered at that answer. Suddenly, the spirit dived forward and went through Ginny before disappearing altogether. She slid off Draco and onto the floor, shocked and wondering what was going to happen next. But it was already starting.

*

The world started to get dizzy for Ginny as she looked around, then everything began to get blacker. She could feel her skin burning like she was touching fire and leaned up against something solid for support so that she didn't suddenly hit the ground. She started to shiver and hugged herself tightly to get warmer, but that only succeeded in bringing her temperature up higher.

"Oh shit," she could faintly hear Draco say, his voice an echo. Suddenly, she was being lifted and she thought she saw bright lights swirling around the air above her. Her head fell onto something soft and firm. Ginny tried to figure out what it was, but she couldn't. Her mind was slowing down.

*

Draco hurriedly picked her up and righted the bed before laying her underneath the blankets. He grabbed the washcloth and went into the living room for the basin. Bringing it back into the bedroom with him, he dipped the cloth in it and laid it on her forehead. She was overtaken with shivers and tried to get up, but Draco forced her back down underneath the covers.

When she closed her eyes, Draco went back into the other room for a thermometer, the Muggle kind because he hadn't been able to learn the special spell for taking temperatures. He finally found one in the bathroom and went back to Ginny, opening her mouth and putting it under her tongue. He watched the clock before pulling it back out again after a minute to read it.

He cursed and told her, "Stay here and don't move. I'm gonna make you a potion that will bring down your fever." He doubted that she had heard him since she was already snuggling up to her covers, but decided she couldn't really do anything with him being in the next room. 

He went back into the kitchen to make a potion for the fever, a really strong one, since Ginny's fever was bringing her close to death. He had to bring her temperature down dramatically before she'd be out of the woods. Suddenly, he realized that her heavy blankets could bring her temperature up even more and ran into her bedroom only to find that she had already kicked the blankets off. Sighing in relief, he looked through her blankets and picked the lightest, but still warm, one and laid it over her. He walked back into the kitchen and noticed that all the stunned intruders were lying on the floor in his way.

"They'll have to wait," he said aloud. The thought came to him that he was free to run, free to escape back to his father. Ginny was sleeping in her bed and she didn't really need him. So why stay? "No, Malfoys keep their promises when they can't find a loophole to them."

"I keep my promises too," the dreshnok said, appearing out of thin air in front of him. Draco didn't blink and noticed that the spirit had been counting on him to be scared. "Why waste your time here when you can come back to your father? Hmmm? He needs you more than she does and your promise to him is even more important than a promise to a girl."

"My father doesn't need my help with anything," Draco told him, vaguely realizing that this spirit had been sent by his father to hurt Ginny. "He's survived years without requiring my assistance. Why should he stop now?"

"But it's not just your assistance that he wants," the spirit reminded him. Draco knew what the spirit was going to say next. "Remember, my dear boy, you were sent out on an errand for the Great One. You have something that is his." 

Draco metally pictured the little bottle still in his cloak pocket with its green liquid bubbling inside. He shook his head and asked, "So?"

"If you want the Dark Mark, you have to obey the rules," the spirit answered, coming closer to Draco. Draco shook his head in disbelief and went back to making that potion for Ginny. The spirit clicked its tongue in disapproval behind him. "Looks like the little boy doesn't want to play with the grown-ups anymore. What are they going to say when they find out?"

"I don't really care," Draco said. "I'd sooner die than follow in anyone's footsteps."

"Oh, but you've always wanted to follow in your father's footsteps," the spirit told him, coming even closer so that he was talking right next to Draco's ear. "It was what you were born to do. Your destiny was mapped out even before you were conceived. Don't stop now. There'll be times that you'll regret it if you do."

The spirit suddenly stopped talking, and as Draco turned around in an icy fury, the spirit exploded, unleashing a tidal wave of cold air that nearly knocked Draco over. He grabbed hold of the countertop and waited for the air-wave to die down before starting on the potion again.

Half an hour later, he walked into Ginny's bedroom with a tall glass of the potion and shook her awake. She awakened easily, moaning, and let him pull her up into a sitting position to drink the potion. When she tried to spit the potion out, he held her mouth shut and tipped her head back before allowing her to lean back into the pillows.

"I'm going to be dumping those stunned guys somewhere in the forest," he said, heading for the door. "It won't do to have them wake up in the cottage, especially in your condition." She started to protest, but he held up his hand to quiet her. "I'll be back soon so don't leave that bed. Have plenty of rest, read, or do whatever you can do in bed, and drink plenty of water."

He left her bedroom and began to gather the stunned intruders. He shrugged a cloak on before bringing them outside. After getting a wheelbarrow from the shed next to Ginny's car, he piled the thieves on top and started to wheel them out into the middle of the forest. He dumped them in a clearing and was about to leave when it occured to him that he should wake the men up. He decided not to and went back to walking towards the cottage.

Then there it was again, that feeling that he was free to run back to his father. He shook his head and felt as if someone was watching him. The skin on the back of his neck prickled and he slowed his walk down, exciting his senses with the feeling of being watched. He shook his head again, as if to free the cobwebs inside, and regained his original pace.

He had to admit that this was the best time to escape back to his father. He had his cloak and his wand, and the potion his father wanted inside his cloak pocket. Add that to the fact that he was in the middle of the forest and that Ginny was sick and basically couldn't do anything to stop him from leaving.

But no, he made a promise and he intended to keep it, no matter how long it took. Ginny needed him to take care of her while she was sick and he wouldn't be able to leave until she said so, which was probably when her sickness left her. This meant that he should probably be at the cottage right now, taking care of her so she'd get better faster.

Draco quickened his pace and stopped arguing with himself. When he let himself in, he found Ginny on her way into the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks when she was spotted.

"Oi! What do you think you are doing up?" Draco asked, turning her around and leading her back into her room.

"I wanted water," she said as he settled her back into her bed.

"Then I will get it for you," Draco said, going back into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and filled it with the pure, refreshing fluid before going back into her bedroom and handing it to Ginny.

"Thank you," she said politely before taking a sip. After a couple of mouthfuls, she paused and looked at him. "Why are you still here?"

"What?" he asked, her question coming out of the blue. He knew what she was talking about though, but didn't answer until she had repeated her question again.

"I mean, why are you still here even after all the chances you could've had in getting back to your father?" she asked again.

Draco sighed and started to pace about the room, thinking about what he should tell her. "I'm not what you would call honourable, but I gave you my word in not going back to my father," he finally said. He came to stand across from her position on the bed and stared back evenly at her. She didn't flinch when he held her eyes, just stared back at him.

"Thank you," she said again after a moment's silence.


	4. A Bit of Hero in Wolf's Clothing

**...A Bit of Hero in Wolf's Clothing**

RATING: PG-13

A/N: If you are confused with the memory after Draco and Ginny kissed on New Year's Eve, then know that they didn't talk about it, but they could still talk to each other about other things and that is where this memory comes from.

*

_It was Valentine's Day and I was still in my sixth year, the year Draco had kissed me at New Year's Eve. I had been watching him ever since and noticed that something weird was going on when he went out of his way to find legitmate reasons for picking on everyone._

_Then the attacks on the castle started. He started to lose his cool more frequently when the other Slytherins badgered him about something. Sometimes, he started fights with the Slytherin boys. Then he would disappear for a couple of hours, or even a day. This morning I found him outside standing in the snow. He didn't even notice me, but kept looking at the lake with a sour look on his face. Apparently, he had had another one of his fights with the Slytherins again the night before._

_This morning, I got dressed in my warmest clothes the moment I had woken up. It had snowed the night before and I was anxious to go have fun in it before everyone else woke up. Then I quietly ran outside, or at least as quietly as I could, and jumped into the nearest snow bank. I lay there for a moment, looking at the still-brightening sky with a smile on my face._

_When I got up, I noticed the black dot against the snow standing at the lake. Draco. When I went closer, I found that he was angry. I watched him for nearly half an hour, but he didn't move. He didn't even notice me until I spoke._

_"What's wrong?" I called, stepping out from behind my hiding place. He whipped around surprised. _

_When he saw who it was, he began walking back to the castle, saying over his shoulder, "Stay out of it, Weasley."_

_I ran to catch up to him. "No," I said simply._

_"Are you deaf, or are you just a glutton for punishment?" Draco asked irritably. "I said stay out of it."_

_"Why should I?" I asked. He sneered at me, but I kept my ground. "I come out here and find you melting the ice with your glare. I think it's very much my business."_

_"Yeah?" Draco said, suddenly stopping. "Well, you don't know anything."_

_He continued on again and I stayed behind, glaring at his retreating back. Then, I ran to catch up to him again and immediately fell into step with him. We didn't talk until he suddenly veered away from the castle and pushed me into the snow._

_"Do not follow me!" he yelled, before looking around to see where he should go. He decided to walk around the castle and started off, but I tripped him, causing him to fall into the snow on his face. He grabbed some snow and tried to push it down my top, but I fought back and threw a handful of my own snow into his face. We struggled for a little more before we found him on top of me, his face centimetres from mine._

_He leaned down a little more as if to kiss me, but decided better of it and got off me before storming into the castle._

*

Ginny immediately woke up then. She found she had went back to sleep and that Draco was curled up on the bed beside her, sleeping as well. She studied his face intently, trying to figure out why she had even bothered keeping him there in the first place. She could've just gotten to Draco's father first and kept them from doing the ritual to go back in time. Or, she could've told Hermione, Ron, and Harry. But something kept her from doing that.

She quietly slipped from bed and into the kitchen, careful not to disturb Draco's sleep. She was still a little wobbly on her feet, but her fever had died down and the world had stopped spinning around her. She made herself some coffee and went back into her bedroom to sit on her bed.

Ginny looked at Draco's face again. He looked so vulnerable and innocent, it was actually kind of cute. She scrunched up her face at the thought of her mortal enemy being cute. She wasn't supposed to think he was cute. She was suppose to think he was nasty.

A strand of Draco's hair fell into his face. She leaned forward and brushed it back, trailing her finger along his skin. Her finger felt like it was on fire. She pulled back quickly when he moved his head and his eyes slowly opened.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much," Ginny replied. She leaned back into her pillows as he lifted himself up onto his elbow.

"Sorry about you waking up to find me in your bed," he said. "I fell asleep keeping watch."

Ginny shrugged and said, "It's okay. I kind of like it. It makes me feel safe somehow."

"I'll bet," Draco said sarcastically. "We're in the middle of a really weird forest. I think anybody taller than you would make you feel safe."

"You are not taller than me," Ginny protested.

"Just by an inch," Draco told her. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Being a little childish, are we?"

"Well, I just had a very high fever," Ginny told him. "I have a right to be childish." His face darkened at the mention of her fever. "I am alright, you know."

"Yeah, but for all we know, it could be temporary," Draco said, shifting so that he was lying on his back and looking at the ceiling. "Maybe two minutes from now you could go back into the fever and I might not be able to save you."

"Oh, so you want to save me," Ginny commented, grinning. "I thought you didn't save people."

Draco snorted. "You wish."

Ginny raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh? Who did you save?"

"Don't get all excited," Draco told her. "It was only once and I'm not sure if you could call it saving people. It was a little baby that was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck."

"So, you delivered a baby and saved him from dying all in a matter of seconds?" Ginny asked, impressed and weirded out at the same time. "And you, of all people, _delivered_ a baby?"

Draco turned to face her again. "What? I can't have layers?" She gave him a look. He rolled his eyes at her and started talking again. "Yes, I delivered a baby and saved his life in the process. It _was_ weird for me to do it, but I was the only person available at the time."

"When?" she asked. He looked confused for a second and she went on. "When did you deliver the baby?"

"About two weeks after that New Year's Eve we kissed," Draco answered. "It was during the trip to Hogsmeade that we were attacked. People were fleeing to Hogwarts from all directions and the mother of the baby bumped into me. We fell to the ground and she had a contraction there. I guess the impact had advanced the birthing process so I took her to an alley where she'd be safe. I was going to leave her, but the contractions got more and more closer together so I had to deliver it there. Then the baby nearly died, and I saved it by cutting its umbilical cord and directing air into its nose and throat. But I couldn't save the mother."

Ginny's eyes grew wide. "What? Why not?" she asked.

"She had been stabbed from behind," Draco told her. "I didn't notice the stab wound until after she had died. I had figured that all the blood she had on her dress was from having a baby, but then it turned out to be--" He sighed. "Remember that morning you found me by the lake?" Ginny nodded. "I realized then that morning that the reason why I had been rebelling against the other Slytherins was because of what happened. I was angry at myself for not being able to save the mother, and then being angry at myself for caring at all. Then I found that I actually liked saving that little baby." A bitter smile came on his face, like he still couldn't believe it. He got up and paced around the room. "Just think, Draco Malfoy, son of a Death Eater in the highest rank, enjoyed saving someone as opposed to killing them."

He stopped in front of the window, his face hidden from her. "Draco..." she said, willing him to turn around. When he did, he looked her straight in the eyes, challenging her to look away. She struggled for the words to express what she was feeling under his piercing gaze. "Maybe you just wanted to be a hero instead of being the bad guy all the time."

He laughed then and said sarcastically, "Yeah, that's right. I want to be a hero like Harry Potter and live in a shack in the middle of a forest! I want to be like you. You with all your heroic qualities! You coop yourself up here in the middle of the woods and never go out and expect that I wanted to be a hero!" His voice had started to rise and by the time he had finished, he was practically yelling. "That's rich!"

Ginny sat on her bed and didn't look at him. Her brain slowly processed what he had just said and she hated him for it. She suddenly felt bitter and ignored him when he came to sit on the bed.

"Have a nice rant?" she asked, her voice shaking. When he didn't answer, she said, "Yeah, I'll bet." She got off the bed and slowly walked over to the door with her cup of coffee, her legs still weak.

"I thought I told you to stay in bed," Draco said in a deathly calm voice from the bed.

She whipped around in fury. "How dare you!" she whispered. "You do not own me or my house or my life! You can't control me like you can your friends. I will do whatever I bloody like!"

"Ginny-" Draco started to protest, getting off the bed.

"No! Don't you start, Draco! Wait, why the hell am I calling you by your first name? It's back to the last name for you, mister!"

She turned and was about to walk out of the room when she was suddenly hit with a wave of heat. Her skin began to burn and her vision blurred. She vaguely remembered her legs collapsing out from under her and her coffee spilling all over her as the vision took full effect.

*

\\_"Damn it! Where is my son?!" Lucius bellowed into the nearly empty room._

_"We must do whatever we have to, Lucius," said a man standing in a corner. His voice was hinted with malice and viciousness. The man turned around to reveal that he was Voldemort with the snake nose and red eyes. Voldemort smirked and the picture faded away to-_

_-a massacre. Hundreds of lifeless bodies strewn about the floor of the office building, their mouths open in shock and their eyes wide in fear. All dead, except for the robed figures pacing the long hallway, looking for anyone who was still alive and hiding._

_The picture focused on a door. A nameplate hung on it, reading, 'Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts'. The door opened and inside could be seen a greying old man. But he was unmistakable to anyone who happened to know him. The red hair still stood out vividly against his paling, dead skin._//

*

When Ginny suddenly collapsed on her way out of the room, Draco ran forward to catch her. Her coffee spilled all over the two of them, but he barely noticed as he felt the rising heat of her fever on her forehead. He pulled her against his chest when he realized that she was having a vision at the same time as her fever.

She gasped in shock before he could do anything else. The red-head looked at Draco with wide eyes before gasping out, "Dad!" and immediately running from the room. He watched as she called her parents and told her father to stay at home that day and that a mass murder was about to happen at the Ministry. After telling him to get in contact with anybody he could, she hung up and remained motionless.

Uncertain, he laid a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him and he could see tears were gathering in her eyes. She told him everything she had seen while he made another potion to keep the fever down. After she drank the potion, he led her back to her room and settled her back in her bed. He checked her forehead for any signs of more fever before laying down beside her. She snuggled closer and he put an arm around her protectively. She fell asleep after a couple of minutes, but Draco remained awake. He came to a decision and left the bed, trying not to disturb Ginny's sleep. Then he grabbed a black robe and cloak to disguise himself and set off for the Ministry. 


	5. The Hero in the Elevator

**…The Hero in the Elevator**

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and no, I am not going to abandon this story. Hopefully, this chapter is as good as the other chapters.

*

"Even when I have been told that there is no legal obligation, I have always said, 'if there is a moral obligation then we must step up to the plate.' People's lives are more important that money."

~ Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley

*

_"What happened to the baby?" Ginny asked him, sitting cross-legged on the bed while he sat across from her, leaning against a bed-pole. He tore his eyes away from the wall above her, something that had been extremely interesting to him in the past half-hour, to look at her._

_"The baby I delivered?" he asked, showing no emotion at all in his face except for an indifferent thoughtfulness that could not have been accomplished unless you were a Malfoy. She nodded. "He became an heir to a prestigious advertising company that he will inherit in twenty years, give or take."_

_Ginny gave him a small smile. "Does this baby have a name, by any chance?" she asked._

_"John, John Indravis," he said, after a short pause in which he became fascinated with the burnt window. This led Ginny to believe he had something to do with the name, so she inquired about it._

_"And is John a name you wish you had for yourself instead of the name 'Draco'?" she asked, biting back her smile and making her face seem as if it was curious._

_This question brought Draco back to the present. He seemed a little taken aback by Ginny's inquiry, maybe even a little appalled that she would suggest such a thing. He scoffed at her. "As if I would take on a Christian name," he sneered._

_Ginny raised her eyebrows, not in a sarcastic way, though. She had raised her eyebrows because this topic had brought back to him a piece of his old self; the one who always smirked at those he thought lower than him. And she didn't like this transition._

_Instead of replying back to him, she lowered her head to look at her hands, which were folded in her lap, and asked, "Do you ever see John?"_

_For a moment, there is no reaction. She doesn't even hear him breathing. Startled, she looks up to see that he has disappeared, leaving something behind on the bed in his place. It was a small bottle that had a beige cork inside to keep the liquid from spilling out. The liquid itself was green, and it was bubbling in such a fashion that it reminded her of the Advanced Potions class she had taken at Hogwarts where they had studied up on time efflexirs, potions that could take you to whatever destination in time you wanted to be._

_She picked up the bottle and held it in her hands, feeling the warmth of the potion bubbling up against the side of the glass in random places. It felt nice to the touch, but she knew it was dangerous._

_And then it smashed._

*

"Draco!"

She sat up immediately and looked around. Draco was no longer on the bed beside her, his arm was not protecting her, and he was not anywhere else in the room. This surprised her. Lately, he had taken to sleeping on the bed with her ever since she had been infected by the dreshnok and had high fevers.

She got out of the bed and padded into the living room. No Draco there. She opened the door to the washroom, thinking it safe since the shower wasn't running. Still, no sign of him.

Then the realization hit her. She had been left all alone in the house with no note from Draco as to where he was off to; it was obvious what had happened. He had left, breaking his promise and returning to his father. He had probably taken the little bottle she had seen in her dream, and by now the Dark Lord was probably exacting his revenge on Harry Potter and the Wizarding World would probably go back to the way it had been when Voldemort had first been in power. Harry would be dead and Voldemort would be loose, his strength back to his full potential.

"Dammit," she muttered, closing the door to the washroom resignedly. She took a deep breath to calm herself –and to tell herself that it simply wasn't true and that Draco had probably gone for a walk— before she began to walk into the kitchen. She perched herself on a stool and looked around, not knowing what to do.

She felt like a complete failure, like she didn't deserve to have such a great place in life, to have such a great job. She couldn't keep the worst from happening when she had visions on her side, proving that she was useless to the Wizarding World.

Yet, why did the witch in her say that she should have some faith in Draco? Why did her inner Seer sense that hope was close at hand? Why did some force draw her eyes to the—

Black silk cloak that was hanging on the coat rack by the front door? Ginny frowned and made her way towards it. She pulled it off the hook and felt the material, relishing the smooth feel of the silk and the way it glided over her fingertips almost like water. Such an item was too expensive for her, even if she had bought herself a BMW. There was only one person it could belong to, and that person was Draco Malfoy.

She looked through the front pockets of the cloak and soon stumbled across the little bottle. She gasped as the heat of the bottle pressed against her fingertips and she drew it out of the silk pocket. This could only mean one thing: Draco had kept his promise after all and he was somewhere else.

But where?

Then she noticed that one of her own cloaks was missing from the coat rack, one that had been a tad bit too long for her and she had left it there just in case she ran across someone who would fit in it, and give it to them as a present. It seemed like Draco was about to get a new present the next time she saw him.

*

The drive into London was hell, or at least something close to it. First, Draco had to find a suitable car that would not electrocute him like Ginny's did when he tried to open the car door. Then, he had to drive that car all the way to London in the pouring rain that had just started and try to miss some of the traffic jams on the major highways.

This was no easy feat for Draco, who had only driven a car twice or three times in his life and had no clue what all the symbols and buttons on the dashboard meant. As the rain poured harder on the country lane that he was on, he squinted through the river of water pouring down onto the windshield. Twice, he had to pull over when the visibility wasn't clear enough to even see a tiny _bit_ through.

Once the rain had stopped pouring and only little droplets were now hitting the windshield, he started off again for London. Halfway there, the rain completely stopped, after which Draco finally figured out what the windshield wipers were for.

Using the telephone box that was a doorway to the Ministry of Magic, he went down underground into the Ministry of Magic and hid in the telephone box to see if there was anyone on guard. It took him a couple seconds to realize that there were witches and wizards running around, going about their daily routines. Not one witch or wizard seemed afraid or extremely upset, except for the couple of small children who were wailing at the top of their lungs, upset that their parents wouldn't let them have the candy the witch at the reception desk was giving out to other kids.

"Must've gotten here early," he thought, stepping out of the box and into the crowd of milling people. Some of them seemed to be giving him odd looks, as if they found it odd that he was hiding in the box, or at least trying to, since it was mostly glass. He ignored their gazes and looked around, trying to see if he could spot any of Voldemort's spies.

There was a man standing with his back against a pillar across from him. As the man's eyes raked the crowd and almost came to Draco, Draco hurriedly pulled his cloak hood up to cover his face, not wishing to reveal his identity too soon. He felt the man look at him for a second before looking at everyone else in the area.

Once the man had fixed his eyes on a Floo fireplace which had multiple people coming out of it at once, Draco snuck a look at the man, recognizing him as one of the new Death Eaters. Usually new Death Eaters were sent to spy on public places if Voldemort needed any information since it was unlikely that the Ministry of Magic would suspect them of doing something illegal. And it seemed as if this one had been sent to make sure no one got out.

The man suddenly began to move towards the fireplaces all along his side of the Hall. Draco kept his eye on him as the man started pushing people away from the fireplaces and casting a spell on them to board them up so that no one could get out or in. More spies came to help him and Draco felt it was time to move.

Not really knowing what he was doing, he ran over to the elevator as it began to unload passengers before its ascent up to other floors. He pushed his way through the crowd of people to get onto it, jostling several people along the way, some of them yelling at him.

The elevator had just begun to move when screams erupted from the Hall and flashes of green light flew about the room, one narrowly missing the elevator. The people in the elevator began to panic; some began to cry as they watched through the grilles dozens of people fall to the ground, dead.

Draco forced himself not to think about it, to keep to his resolve to find Arthur Weasley and save people on that floor. He alone could not help the people in the Hall. He had to focus on getting to Arthur.

As the elevator opened on Level Seven, Draco was overwhelmed with the question of why he was there in the first place. He knew the main reason was to help the Ministry of Magic avoid a disaster and get Mr. Weasley out of there in time with other people, but his thoughts kept coming back to the fact that it used to be him eager to be doing all the massacring. 

"'Used to be' being the operative choice of words," Draco thought to himself. His eyes floated over to a witch who was shielding her son, prepared to keep his eyes away from any death that might be going on in Level Seven. She seemed vaguely familiar, but when he couldn't place where he had seen her before, he looked away. 

No one got out on this floor. They were too scared to do it, afraid that a Death Eater would hop out from a corner in the corridors of Level Seven and throw curses at them. The people waiting for the lift on this level saw that only a few people could get on. As some of them boarded the lift, the rest headed to the stairway to go down to the Hall before a freaked-out witch stopped them in their tracks.

"Don't go!" the witch yelled from on the lift. She struggled to get to the front to talk to them more clearly. "There are Death Eaters in the Hall! They're killing everybody!"

The small group of wizards and a witch tensed. The witch departed quickly, apparently going back to her office as she had turned away from the route to the stairway. The rest of the wizards pulled out their wands and hurried to the stairs, probably going to help anyone in need in the Hall.

The frightened witch on the lift suddenly launched herself at the grille as the door to the lift began to close, yelling at the departed wizards, "Don't! Don't go! They're going to kill you!" Several wizards on the elevator struggled to hold her back to keep her from getting in the grille as it closed and she kept on screaming at the top of her lungs as the elevator began to go up again to Level Six. The witch with the child picked up her son and held his head to her chest as he began to cry, frightened at the other witch's antics.

"Madam, calm yourself!" an angry wizard who was holding the witch back yelled at her. She struggled to get free, causing the wizards holding her to bump into people behind them. Everyone jumped a little backwards and Draco was pushed further into the side of the lift. He took a deep breath and watched as an old witch with a walking stick bent down to the younger witch and whispered something to her. After a couple more sobs, the young witch calmed down somewhat and the old witch put an arm around her, releasing her from the wizards who were holding her.

"But Madam Tibbles…" the angry wizard complained, trying to get a hold of the frightened witch again.

Madam Tibbles, the older witch, knocked him over the head with her cane and yelled, "You'll be frightening her more if you keep her bound like that. She needs to be able to move in order to calm down." As soon as she sensed the wizard knew his place, she bent down to the younger witch and whispered to her again. The young witch slid down the grille to the ground and drew her knees up to her chest like a little child while Madam Tibbles nodded approvingly.

The elevator opened its doors again on Level Six and the young witch crawled back a little to look at the group waiting for the elevator. The group's eyes ran over the young witch's tear-streaked face to Madam Tibbles who was leaning against her cane, examining them, to the frightened faces of all the other passengers. Their own faces became alarmed.

"What's happened?" one of the wizards asked. His face had already been crinkled with worry, suggesting he might have known something about what was happening. He looked towards Madam Tibbles. "I heard that the Floo Networks had been shut down. Is something going on in the Hall?"

Madam Tibbles considered him for a bit, her wrinkled face clouding over, before saying, "My dear Nodstockings, you'd better get down to the Hall and open the Floo Networks. But you'd better be careful. It seems that Death Eaters have taken over the lobby."

Some of the witches in the group outside of the elevator gasped and a small group of witches and wizards took out their wands, departing for the lobby with set expressions on their faces. Nodstockings nodded briefly at Madam Tibbles before moving to follow the group of wizards who had just left.

Two wizards were left with the group of witches left behind. Draco recognized both the wizards as being two of his teachers back at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin and Professor Snape. He frowned as he realized Lupin was looking at Snape in askance, and he frowned even more when he realized Snape was looking directly at _him, an odd expression on his face._

The group of witches, Lupin, and the people on the elevator followed his eyes to where Draco was standing, his face hidden by the cloak. He carefully avoided Snape's eyes, as the professor could have used Occlumency, if he had wanted to, to look into Draco's thoughts.

It was Madam Tibbles who spoke first. "My dear," she said to Draco, in a calm voice that suggested she knew something everybody else didn't, "I would remove the cloak at once and reveal your identity, or else…" She left that sentence unfinished to emphasize the seriousness of the situation to Draco, and he found himself obeying.

Those who understood what it meant to have a man with a pointed face and silvery blonde hair on board gasped. Some stepped back from him, including the young witch who was sitting on the floor. They all knew what it meant. A Malfoy, and a son of a prominent Death Eater, was on board.

Draco, meanwhile, looked at them all indifferently, even almost amused at the fact that they were scared of him because of his name. For a moment, everyone was frozen in place. Then several wizards whipped out their wands and brandished them at him. He sighed and looked towards Lupin, who had his hand in his cloak, ready to take out his own wand, and Snape, who seriously looked as if he was about to smile for once in his lifetime. Out of the corner of his eye, he could've sworn he had seen Madam Tibbles smile proudly at him.

"Have you seen Arthur Weasley?" Draco asked Snape and Lupin, keeping his expression calm.

"Why?" asked the angry wizard, who had his own wand out and was angry again. Draco turned sharply towards him. "Have you been sent to kill him by your father?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not my father," Draco told him, still keeping the exterior calmness so as not to alarm them anymore than he had already done. "In fact, I am here on behalf of Ginny Weasley. She's sick and can't make it, so I am to deliver a message for her."

"And how do you know where Ginny Weasley lives?" Lupin asked, suspicious.

"It's a long story, actually," Draco told him, looking at his watch. They were wasting time here.

"We have a few minutes," Snape said, the first time he had spoken since he had spotted Draco in the lift. "Tell us what you can."

Draco rolled his eyes. Snape had his arms crossed and a small smirk was tugging at his lips. He just loved the idea that another 'evil' person had crossed over from the Dark side.

So Draco told his story, from the part where Ginny had hit him with her car down to the part about her last vision. When he finished, he asked Snape, "Satisfied?"

The elevator doors began to close again, but Snape pressed the elevator button, automatically opening them again. "Alright, everybody off," Snape said, moving back to make way for the passengers.

"But sir!" the young witch exclaimed, standing up. "We may be safer on the lift."

"'May' being the operative word," Snape said, a bit reproachfully. "Will you be safe if they cut the power to the lift and come up to kill you? You'll be vulnerable in there, even more so because there wouldn't be a way to get out." This frightened the young witch even more and she jumped off the elevator like it was a spider that was going to bite her.

"Very good," he said in approval. He continued, "I want everyone to take the stairs. Go upwards and come out on each floor. Warn those who are waiting for the lift and take them with you. Lupin, if you could shut down the lift from here that would be great."

Lupin nodded and went into the elevator as the passengers finished unloading. Draco stepped off and watched as Lupin opened a side panel in the elevator before pointing his wand at it and muttering a spell. The lights flickered once before going off and Lupin stepped out as the elevator's doors began to close.

"Draco," Snape said. Draco turned and walked over to him, curious as to what Snape wanted him for. "As to your question, Mr. Weasley is still in his office. But for the moment, you are to lead everyone up the floors. Get as many people with you as you can. It will be safer if you remain in a tight group. Always keep as many adults with you as you can to keep a good defensive and offensive guard."

Draco nodded, not noticing that Snape had just called him a teenager. He asked, "What about you and Lupin?"

"We'll be down in the Hall," Snape told him, bringing out his wand. "Keep your wand at the ready. To remind you, you'll find Mr. Weasley on Level Two. And warn as many people as you can."

With that, Snape and Lupin departed for the stairs, leaving the now quite large group behind. Madam Tibbles turned to Draco expectantly and asked, "Well, Mr. Malfoy, are you leading us to safety or are you not?"

Draco looked at her for a moment. Then, he looked over the group, searching for able-bodied people. When he spoke, he sounded as if he was about to lead them to war. "Everybody have their wands out and ready." The group scrambled for their wands. He began to point to certain people that he felt would be useful in defence.

"I want you three to take up the rear defence," he said to them. They nodded in reply. "If you hear anyone coming up the stairs behind you, whistle twice. Everyone is to flatten themselves against the wall and the three of you are to identify the stranger. If you recognize him and know that he is on our side, welcome him to our group. If you don't recognize him, or you do but know him as a Death Eater, stun him."

"Mr. Malfoy, are we to attack someone we don't recognize simply because we don't recognize him?" one of the three defence wizards asked.

"That's absurd!" cried a witch.

Draco was about to talk, but Madam Tibbles beat him to it. "Would you rather _we_ were attacked first by the stranger? He could be a Death Eater, for all we know!"

"That is exactly right," Draco agreed. "Voldemort sends his newest recruits in first as spies, simply because the Ministry doesn't know if they are Death Eaters or not. Better safe than sorry." He looked over his group again, expecting someone to burst out with, 'How do we know that you're not a Death Eater?' but it never came, probably because Madam Tibbles was frowning at anyone who looked as if they were about to speak.

Draco appointed another two wizards to join him at the front and gave them the same instructions. Then he turned to the rest of the group and told them that if they heard two whistles, they were to hide as best as they could. Then, he gave them a defence layout too, putting those he perceived to be the most vulnerable in the middle. The woman with her son and the young witch stood beside each other without a fuss.

Once he was satisfied, he promptly gave them a nod of approval and turned out of the room, starting for the reception area of Level Six. They were to warn the people on this level first before they started for the stairs.

*


End file.
